The children and young people’s regulator is to make another snap inspection of a council’s struggling children’s services department after a damning report earlier this year said there was a risk of 'significant harm'.

Councillors said it was 'beginning to feel like Groundhog Day' and asked if any disciplinary action had been taken against badly performing staff and said Torbay had a 'culture of poor performance' within the service.

Children's care had got worse when the last snap inspection was carried out in February. Inspectors said the quality of service had declined since their previous inspection.

The council was subject to a Statutory Direction in 2016, meaning it had to comply with the instructions of a commissioner appointed by the government. Since earlier this year Plymouth City Council has run children’s services in Torbay.

Among Ofsted’s criticisms following the February inspection were:

Improved social work practice for children on the edge of care and for those being looked after had been too slow.

Some children remained in situations of known risk of significant harm for too long, without effective action being taken.

Social workers were struggling to implement improvements, and widespread poor practice remained.

Social workers and team managers had insufficient professional curiosity, and there was poor frontline decision making to protect children.

Senior and middle managers had made little progress in addressing poor performance among frontline staff.

The Ofsted letter, however, said workforce stability had significantly improved due to extra funding, and supervision of social workers was better. Ofsted also said a framework for continued improvement had been put in place.

The council’s ruling cabinet was told this week that so far this year only one or two of more than 30 new child care cases had suffered from drift and delay, a significant aspect of Ofsted’s criticism.

Director of children’s services Andy Dempsey said that in a number of areas the department was now performing well, although in others it was variable.

Quizzed on whether disciplinary action had been taken against poorly performing staff, he said: “Where we need to take robust action against managers and practitioners, we will take robust action.”

Lib Dem Steve Darling asked: “It does feel very much like groundhog day, when we have been assured it is all under control and then we get another inspection. There is a culture of poor performance within the service.”

Former elected mayor Nick Bye said: “This is the first time that I am aware of that we have discussed a particularly damning Ofsted letter.”

“I was astounded that we have had no discussion among members until today.”

On the coming inspection Conservative Richard Haddock said: “Do you think we are going to pass this? Are we up to scratch? That is what people are saying.”